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Jose Bautista responded Friday night to the wishes of a Wisconsin father whose son was tragically killed in a UTV accident last weekend.

Bautista received a tweet from Steve Lendosky, and after learning of the sad news of his son Derek’s passing, the Blue Jays slugger dedicated Friday’s game against Oakland to the 9-year-old boy.

“I don’t know what to think,” Bautista said prior to the game, where the A’s pounded the Jays 14-6 on five homers, including three by Josh Reddick. Bautista had a third-deck homer in the eighth and went 3-for-5.

“I got a lot of similar requests and I can’t get to all of them. But I did some follow up on this one, and when someone tells you they will bury their son in your jersey, its tough.”

Steve Lendosky, via his Twitter account @iamlongball, approached Bautista through the sluggers’ popular @joeybats19 account. The weight and emotion of the tragedy began to impact Bautista as he read the request.

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“On Friday (last night) I will be burying my nine year old son,” the elder Lendosky said in the tweet to Bautista.

“He will be wearing his Bautista jersey and taking a ball you gave him with him. You were his favorite player. He would have wanted to share this with you.”

The accident last weekend occurred in Fennimore, near Madison, Wisc., and not only prompted Bautista’s response, it spurred a random act of kindness group thread on Facebook, and various acts of kindness in Fennimore and the surrounding communities.

“He sent me a tweet, he said he was going to bury his son and that’s when I did some research into the story . . . I wouldn’t know what to say (if I talked to him),” an emotional Bautista said.

Bautista didn’t know it at first, but thousands of people touched by the tragedy began reaching out to him via Twitter. A Facebook page dedicated to the GameForDerrick and random acts of kindness also sprung up through the week.

So Bautista took up the cause, and tweeted into his account his dedication: “Tonight’s game is for Derek #GameForDerek #DerekRIPMyFriend.

“A lot of people (in social media) were tweeting to me to do it and I said to myself that it made sense,” Bautista said.

“I went back and looked at his tweet and I guess I met the boy before, signed an autograph . . . so I’ve met the boy somewhere, and I’m guessing that they are in Wisconsin, so it might have been Minnesota or Milwaukee ??”

Members of the Facebook group began reaching out to Bautista via the hashtag “#JoseBautistaGameForDerek”

Reports said the group had 4,500 members by Friday’s game.

When Bautista tweeted his game dedication to Derek, the boy’s father replied on Facebook: “@joeybats he would be on cloud 9. I am sure he is looking down on u s and smiling. You are too kind. What a wonderful gesture … Steve Landosky, Aug. 9.”

The elder Lendosky was driving a UTV that was trailing a mower last Sunday with his three children sitting behind him. Police reports said Derek stood up to pick a nut off a tree and fell backward under the mower.

“He had goals, so many goals, to be every profession: basketball player, baseball player, statistician, president,” said Brenda Bunn, Derek’s former kindergarten teacher.

After the tragedy, people in Fennimore began giving gift cards, paying for gas, and taking other people they didn’t know to baseball games (Derek’s favourite sport).

Bautista, meanwhile, was preparing for Friday’s game against Oakland with a heavy heart. He was also anticipating the website launch of Bautistafund.org — his foundation dedicated to providing under-privileged youth with a full education.

“It’s emulated after the fund that sent me to college in Florida,” Bautista said.

Bautista added that he will focus on Latin American youth, but says the fund “is open to all kids.”

“We have 14 kids now, and one of them is a Canadian kid from Toronto . . . he’s gone to school here but has since transferred to the (U.S.),” Bautista said.

NOTE

Jays left-hander Juan Perez left the game with an elbow injury in the seventh inning and is heading for the disabled list Saturday. The Jays will make a corresponding callup to fill in for him.

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